Valentine's Day
by vegetasgirl45
Summary: Raiko is trying to deal with Vegeta being dead and everyone else is trying to bring him back for her b-day. rated pg for suicide attempt and a small amount of language pleez r&r! OOC WARNING! MAJOR OOC WARNING!
1. chapter 1

Maria: ok, hi. This is the sequel to 3rd degree burns. Um...when I wrote this I totally forgot that when they died, they went to Otherworld, so Vegeta's kinda a ghost...so...yea, read and find out how it ends! Also, I don't own DBZ and other stuff. Btw, megan is my friend from school.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Vegeta opened his eyes. 'Where am I?', he thought. All he could see was blackness. He tried to move his arms and legs, but he couldn't even feel them. 'What's going on?' he asked himself. He tried, desperately, to sit up, but he failed. His heart was racing, and he was getting panicky.  
  
Then it came to him. He had died saving someone's life. Raiko's life. His love's life. He could almost see her, with her long, black hair and blue eyes, clear as day, smiling at him. Laughing. He sighed, wondering what she was doing.  
  
As if he had pressed a button, he found himself in her room. He also found that he could move again. Vegeta looked around, seeing nothing interesting, until he came to the window. There sat Raiko, still in her pajamas, her hair a mess and tears streaming down her face. She was looking at a picture that she held in her hands. Vegeta walked over to her and looked at the picture. It was a picture of him, smirking at the camera. Raiko was next to him, her arm in his.  
  
A memory of when the picture was taken came to him. It was at the beach; they were just goofing off, alone, and Goku had snuck up to take a picture. They had noticed, though, so they posed for him. Vegeta smiled. Those were the days.  
  
He turned his attention back to Raiko. She had pressed the photo to her chest, and her head was resting on the table in front of her. As if it was a reflex, Vegeta reached out and touched her shoulder. But his hand just passed through. He jerked his hand back, startled. 'I guess it's just one thing about being...dead,' he thought, looking mournfully at Raiko. 


	2. chapter 2

"There's one about 30 km to the north of here," said Goku, looking at the Dragon Radar. Megan nodded turning her attention towards the sky. The whole gang, besides Raiko and Vegeta of course, were in a plane, flying around, collecting the dragonballs. They felt so bad for Raiko that they all decided to bring Vegeta back for her. And she hadn't a clue what the dragonballs were or what they were doing.  
  
Krillin sighed. "It's not quite the same without Vegeta here," he had said. Everyone had agreed, even Chichi, who didn't like him that much. As they were flying, Goku sensed a strange...presence in the ship. No one knew it, but Vegeta was visiting them. He was curious as to what they were doing.  
  
Megan turned on the phone, and dialed Raiko's number. Raiko picked up, her hair combed and in regular clothes. She still had tears streaming down her cheeks.  
  
"Hey," she said, wiping her eyes.  
  
"Hi," said Megan, "You ok?"  
  
Raiko nodded, trying to look like it. She didn't succeed.  
  
"Okay," Megan sighed, "I'll check back in an hour."  
  
"Kay."  
  
"Bye." Megan hung up.  
  
"Shouldn't we have left someone there with her?" Piccolo asked. He was worried she might hurt herself. Goku perked up.  
  
"Thanks for volunteering, Piccolo! See you and Raiko later?" he said in a comical tone, but actually meaning it. Piccolo blinked twice, and then opened his mouth to decline, but Megan interrupted.  
  
"Yeah, thanks, Piccolo!" she exclaimed, not taking her eyes off the road, er, sky. He would feel bad to let (one of) Raiko's best friend down, so he put two fingers up to his forehead and was gone.  
  
~  
  
Back at Raiko's house, she was in the kitchen, eyeing the knives. Piccolo arrived just as she held one to her wrist. He walked into the kitchen and just about died. He snatched the knife away and threw it across the room.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. She burst into tears, her head falling onto his chest. Piccolo blushed, and hoped Vegeta wouldn't mind if her comforted his (Vegeta's) girlfriend like he (Piccolo) was. Vegeta was watching, curious to see how Piccolo would react, and really scared about the knife thing.  
  
Piccolo wrapped his arms around Raiko in an awkward embrace. Raiko didn't mind at all; she needed a shoulder to cry on.  
  
"Sorry for yelling, but Vegeta wouldn't want you to die just so you could be with him," Piccolo said. Raiko nodded. Vegeta applauded Piccolo's first effort of comforting a woman. He wasn't bad. Piccolo let go of Raiko, and looked into her eyes.  
  
"Now, don't be gettin' any ideas, Piccolo..." Vegeta growled, starting to get jealous.  
  
"Promise you won't try to hurt yourself again, okay?" Piccolo said, and Raiko nodded again. He smiled and walked off into the living room. Raiko took one last look at the knife, then, shivering, followed. 


	3. chapter 3

Vegeta sat in the cherry blossom tree outside of Raiko's house. She was under another tree across from the one he was in, eating leftovers from a while ago. He wanted to keep an eye on her, just so she wouldn't try anything stupid. Piccolo was doing the same, sitting in the same tree, too.  
  
Raiko looked out at the field of cherry blossom trees. Pink blossoms surrounded her on all sides. Pink wasn't usually her color, but these trees calmed her. They reminded her of when Paragus came for Vegeta--  
  
Vegeta...  
  
A small tear ran down her cheek. She missed him so much. But she knew that he could never come back...not without a miracle.  
  
Vegeta watched from his and Piccolo's tree as Raiko bent over with her head in her hands, sobbing. He wanted so much to be able to hold her in his arms. To feel her lean into him. To feel...  
  
"You miss her, don't you," said Piccolo.  
  
"Yeah..." Vegeta answered, and then did a double take, "Wait, you can see me?" Piccolo shrugged, and then spoke without moving his mouth.  
  
"I guess you can say that. I can't exactly see you, but I can sense you."  
  
"How are you talking to me?"  
  
"Telepathy."  
  
"Oooohhhh..." Vegeta started gazing at Raiko again, and then turned back to Piccolo.  
  
"Piccolo?"  
  
"Hm."  
  
"Why are you trying to bring me back? I'm not really that...nice." Piccolo looked at Vegeta like he was insane.  
  
"You don't know?" Vegeta shook his head. Piccolo laughed, Raiko giving him a weird look. He hardly ever laughed.  
  
"We all want you back. You bring joy to Raiko's face, which makes us happy. Things aren't the same with you gone." Vegeta looked down at Raiko again.  
  
"You're a really good friend, Piccolo."  
  
"I can't believe you just said that."  
  
"Me neither..." Vegeta watched as Raiko pulled out her sketchbook and started drawing something. Then she called out to Piccolo.  
  
"Piccolo?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Would you mind modeling for me?" she yelled. Piccolo blinked in surprise.  
  
"Uh...ok. Where do you want me?"  
  
"Just stay in the tree."  
  
"Ok!" he yelled back, and then turned to Vegeta, "Did she used to do this to you, too?" Vegeta nodded, lying back on a branch.  
  
"Oh yeah. You should ask to see her drawings. They're amazing," he sighed, "I swear, she used to bring that sketchbook wherever we went. Then I would be doing something and she'd yell out, "Vegeta! Freeze!" and I would stop moving while she'd make a quick sketch then tell me that I could move again after ten minutes..." Piccolo nodded, then after an 'I told you not to move!' from Raiko, spoke once more to Vegeta.  
  
"Go see what Goku's doing. I want to know how many dragon balls he has."  
  
"Kay. See ya' later," Vegeta replied, and disappeared. 


	4. chapter 4

The next day, Raiko woke up to find snow on the ground outside her window. She jumped up, taking a quick shower, putting on warm clothes, and yelling to Piccolo to come outside with her. Piccolo, confused, looked outside. He had hardly been outside when snow was falling. He wondered what Raiko was up to. He walked outside and a snowball hit him in the face. Raiko, hidden behind a snowy bush, was laughing her head off.  
  
"Omigod! You should see the look on your face!" she laughed. Piccolo frowned, and then gathered up some snow in his hands. Raiko yelped and ran; I mean flew, from her hiding spot. Piccolo launched his snowball and it landed on the back of her head.  
  
"Ayah!" she yelled in surprise. Piccolo laughed, gathering up more snow and throwing it at Raiko. Raiko landed and started flinging snow at Piccolo. Soon, they were in a savage battle. Except with snow. A few minutes into the fight, Megan used her instant transmission to land in the middle of the two fighters, and got bombarded with snow.  
  
"AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" Megan yelled in surprise. She hadn't meant to fall into the middle of the snowball fight. She waved her arms around, trying to get them to stop, but only after a few minutes did they realize that Megan was there. Raiko stood up.  
  
"Hey Megan. 'Sup?" she asked. Megan brushed all the snow off her.  
  
"Nothing. Just wanted to check in," Megan replied, "Let's go inside. It's freezing out here." So they went inside. Raiko went to her room to change shirts (because she was wearing this REALLY hot sweater) so Piccolo and Megan went into the kitchen.  
  
"Megan," Piccolo started, and Megan looked up from her leftover pizza, "I've come in contact with Vegeta."  
  
"Really? Me too."  
  
"Huh?" Piccolo blinked twice in surprise. Megan nodded.  
  
"It was when we were collecting the last Dragon Ball--" Piccolo jumped up.  
  
"You have them all?!" Megan grimaced, waving her hand and telling him to shut up.  
  
"Ssh, Raiko might hear..." Piccolo sat back down.  
  
"Oh, right," he whispered, "So, when do you think he'll be back?" Megan smiled.  
  
"Tomorrow at the latest!"" 


	5. chapter 5

Raiko lay on her bed, her head buried in her pillow. She was sobbing, again. She couldn't get over the fact that Vegeta was gone. She couldn't accept it. She refused to accept it. She rolled over onto her back, looking sadly up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes, more tears escaping her lids.  
  
Vegeta sat, invisible, on the edge of the bed. A few tears were traveling down his face as well. He couldn't bear to see Raiko in so much pain. He wanted to hold her in his arms, but he couldn't. He was dead and that was that. He could only wait to be wished back by the Dragonballs. A voice called up the stairs.  
  
"Bye, Raiko! See you in a few!" Megan yelled.  
  
"Bye!" she called back. She got up and sat down in the chair to her computer. The screen turned on. The desktop was the same picture that Raiko was holding earlier. A new wave of tears fell. She folded her arms and put her head on them. Vegeta couldn't resist. He got up and put his arms around her. Her eyes shot open and she sat up, much to the surprise of Vegeta. She turned around.  
  
"Who's there?" she asked. Vegeta was astonished. She could feel him?  
  
"Who's there?! Answer me!" she demanded, standing up in anger. Vegeta opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, he disappeared. Raiko had felt someone touch her, but she couldn't tell what had. She looked around her room again, and then sat back down. She started to cry again. She missed Vegeta so much.  
  
She fell asleep to dream dreams of when she and Vegeta were together.  
  
~  
  
A couple hours later, Raiko woke up again, realizing that she had forgotten all about her birthday. She got up and went downstairs. She picked up her coat.  
  
"Where are you going?" Piccolo asked, looking up from his book to see Raiko putting on her coat. She looked at him.  
  
"Just outside." She walked out the door. Just as she left, the phone rang. Piccolo jumped up and turned on the screen. Goku and Megan were there.  
  
"He's here," was all they said. 


	6. chapter 6

Raiko stood out in the snow, a black figure in a white and pink field. It was her birthday, February 14th, also Valentine's Day, and her love wasn't there to share it with her. She clipped a flower off of the nearest cherry blossom tree. She held it up to her face, rubbing its soft petals against her cheek. A little drop of water fell on it. She started sobbing into the flower, falling onto the ground.  
  
"Happy Birthday to me...happy birthday to me--" she sobbed, but was interrupted by a deep voice. One she had not heard in a long time.  
  
"Happy Birthday to Raiko. Happy Birthday to you." She leapt up, letting the flower fall to the ground, and turned around. The first thing she saw was Vegeta. Raiko threw her arms around him, crying tears of joy. Small tears clouded Vegeta's eyes as well.  
  
"Omigod...omigod..." was all Raiko could say. Vegeta kissed her cheek, whispering something into her ear. She looked at him, a smile forming on her face. They inched closer together, and then finally kissed.  
  
"Hey," said Goku, tapping Raiko on the shoulder. She turned and threw her arms around him.  
  
"Thank you!" she cried. Goku smiled.  
  
"Happy Birthday," he said. She let go and gave Megan a hug, and then looked around.  
  
"Where's Piccolo?"  
  
"Right here." She turned (again) and gave Piccolo a hug, as well as a small kiss on the cheek.  
  
"Thank you for being there for me."  
  
Goku and Megan pulled Vegeta a ways to the left.  
  
"What'd you whisper into her ear?" Megan asked. Vegeta smirked.  
  
"I told her I loved her and asked her to marry me."  
  
"I guess that kiss was a yes, right?" Goku laughed.  
  
"I guess so." They walked back to joint the group. Raiko was giving everyone hugs and thanking them for bringing Vegeta back to life. Then Vegeta went up to her and slipped a ring onto her finger. She gave him another kiss.  
  
"I love you."  
  
~~~~~  
  
Maria: yay! 'tis finished! And as I said before, no flames! DEATH TO MARIA! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! 


End file.
